


all i do is give (and all you do is take)

by retroria



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Trauma, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Oh My God, SO MUCH FLUFF, cheryl is a peach, not classist, they're so beautiful pls let my babies live happily, toni is a support gf
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-18
Updated: 2018-05-18
Packaged: 2019-05-08 13:48:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14695470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/retroria/pseuds/retroria
Summary: Cheryl hates everything that moves in the Southside, god does she hate them. They took away her brother, they took away what little light her life had, she has every right to hate them.Except, for fucking Toni Topaz.The pink haired minx who Cheryl just can't seem to get away from, the sly girl that gets under Cheryl's skin and makes her feel, something that Cheryl is less than inclined to do, considering she hates the Serpents with every last bone in her body.or; Cheryl is hurting and Toni wants nothing more than to help, if Cheryl would stop being so damn uptight.





	all i do is give (and all you do is take)

**Author's Note:**

> As an initiation into our five month Choni hiatus, I've brought to you this long ass story that took me like no time to right because the possibilities with the best couple on Riverdale are endless. Here's your little trip through hater-to-lovers trope town with your last stop at happy ending, ladies and gentlemen, enjoy!
> 
> -Ria

__

**i.**

From Cheryl’s point of view, she sees no reason why she should give any of the Southsiders a chance to redeem themselves. It’s harsh enough on her that she’s being forced to study in the same classroom as all the other Southsiders now that they had transferred to Riverdale on a poorly made decision by the Mayor, but now she has to partner up with them all the time because of the equally mixed classroom rules? It’s wack, and Cheryl would demand she be transferred to some school in another town, preferably with the same high standards as Riverdale, but she’s also insanely aware of how much her mother would resent her for that. 

 

The last thing Cheryl needs is another reason for her mother to abuse her anymore than she already does. 

 

So she sucks it up and distastefully finds her seat in history class next to a certain pink haired demon that the Scum had brought along with them, a girl that Cheryl would give herself split ends for if that could mean the girl would be gone. 

 

“Enjoying this fine day, are we?” Cheryl hisses when she reaches her seat and finds that the one and only  _ Fangs Fogarty  _ is stationed on her desk, talking in a giddy voice with Toni Topaz herself. 

 

“Cheryl-” he starts, clearly alarmed by her presence. He’d been spending a lot of time around Kevin Keller recently, Cheryl wouldn’t be surprised if the boy had given Fangs a rundown on who not to mess with in Riverdale, and Cheryl would be awfully offended if her name hadn’t been on there. 

 

“No need for conversation,” she snaps, raising a perfectly manicured hand in his face. “Just get out of my seat, cretin.” 

 

Fangs hears no more because he’s already scampered away to the otherside of the room before Cheryl can even really finish her sentence. She’s thankful for that, she would prefer if she wasted less of her precious oxygen on stereotypical z-snapping limp wristed morons.

 

“Ouch,” Toni whispers from next to her as Cheryl begrudgingly takes a seat, trying not to wince at the memory of whose ass had just been on the surface she leans her elbows on. “I wish I could say I was the one who pissed in your cereal this morning.” 

 

“Shut it, Princess Bubblegum,” Cheryl rolls her eyes. “This was about the farthest thing from an invitation for you talk to me as it could be.”

 

“And yet I’ve got you sitting right where one of my best friends had been, talking to me, and dare I say, less than resenting it?” Toni smirks, running the eraser tip of her pencil across the underside of her jaw. 

 

The same jaw that Cheryl wishes she could clock her in was she not so concerned for the well being of her absurdly expensive manicures. 

 

(The same jaw Cheryl once had a dream of sucking a bruise under, but no one has to know that. Not even Cheryl, whose subconscious has pushed that memory so far back she often think she might not even remember it herself if she tried hard enough.)  

 

“Courtesy is the school policy, and I follow the rules,” Cheryl smiles in her threatening manner. One that she knows would have the core four and her own usual lackeys trembling in their boots. “I understand how that might be a hard concept for criminals like you though.” 

 

Toni’s face hardens. Cheryl can tell she’s struck a chord. 

 

( _ Good,  _ she thinks.  _ At least she hates me as much as I hate her now, if not more.)  _

 

“Fuck you, Blossom, you don’t even know the half of it,” Toni spits in her face before facing forward with a more fiery and determined look in her eyes. 

 

“I know  _ all  _ of it,” Cheryl rebukes. She wishes she wouldn’t let Toni-fucking-Topaz get under her skin this easy, but it’s hard not to. “I made it my job to know all of it when I realized that your very own FP Jones was an accessory to my brothers murder.” 

 

Toni’s attention rears back in her direction, with a look of surprise that is masked almost immediately. Cheryl knows what she saw, but she ignores it. Toni might not have had anything to do with Jason’s murder but she was still one of them, and that made her a part of any crime they committed. 

 

“I had nothing to do with your brother’s death, Red,” Toni shrugs, back to her almost indifferent candor. It nearly fazes Cheryl,  _ nearly.  _

 

“You were a part of them then, there was no way you had no idea what was going on, you saw them cover up a murder and you just  _ let it  _ happen,” Cheryl’s voice grows more desperate, and  _ god where is that fucking bell?  _ Shouldn’t have class started by now? Who is punishing her by giving her all the time in the world to fight this battle in a war she had ultimately wanted to avoid? 

 

“So I protected my own,” The pink haired girl points out. “You would do the same if the only people you ever cared about, the only people who ever cared about  _ you,  _ were in danger.” 

 

“Just like that, huh?” Cheryl scoffs. “Just because they care about you, it gives you the right to stay silent about someone getting  _ killed?”  _

 

“If you had family that cared about you, you would do the same.” 

 

_ If, if you had.  _

 

The words resonate in Cheryl's mind like a clock that chimes for too long, like a gong that never stops ringing, like an alarm that has a broken snooze. Even Toni Topaz, of all people, knows that despite the guarded front she puts up, she has nothing. She had Jason, and now she has nothing. 

 

“And who do I have to blame for that?” Cheryl raises her chin. “You and your  _ worthless, scum-like, ragtag  _ group of criminals and soulless demons took away the only family that I had that cared for me.” 

 

It takes everything in the redheaded girl not to break down and cry. It’s the first class of the morning, how is she ever going to get through the day like this? It’s first period and Toni Topaz has already made Cheryl feel like she’s worth less than the Southsiders themselves. 

 

“Listen, Bombshell,” Toni finally determines. “I didn’t owe you anything then, and I still owe you nada, so unless a beatdown is what you want, I suggest you stop throwing accusations my way before it earns you a fate worse than death.” 

 

“Only because I don’t particularly enjoy entertaining a conversation with you,” Cheryl jabs, and turns back towards the front of the room as the bell  _ finally  _ rings and puts an end to her conversation with the bane of her existence. 

 

(She can’t ignore the way Toni’s gaze lingers even after.

 

Maybe she doesn’t want to. 

  
She definitely should.)

**ii.**

 

It’s later in the day when Cheryl finds herself in distasteful company once more. 

 

She sits with the core four plus Kevin now, getting used to their company is something out of the blue but Cheryl isn’t unfamiliar with the idea of it. They had, of course, saved her from nearly drowning at Sweetwater River so she feels as though she owes it to them at least  _ try.  _

 

What she doesn’t owe to them is having to also endure the new Southside friends they’ve seemed to make. 

 

Crowded around their table are the newest additions to the Riverdale clique, and seemingly the most educationally valuable (though saying even  _ that  _ is a stretch) ones, in Cheryl’s mind. 

 

“So this is your crowd, huh?” The tall black haired boy,  _ Sweet Pea,  _ comments as he lumbers over and pops a tater tot into his mouth, picking it clean off of Betty’s plate. 

 

Cheryl glares at the boy, how dare he just strut into  _ their  _ cafeteria and eat off of Betty’s plate like he didn’t have to put in the work, earn the money, and pay for his own cafe food if he wanted it? It’s a trivial matter, and by no means is Cheryl defending Betty, but every little thing the  _ scum  _ does seems to get on her nerves now. 

 

“Yeah, I guess you could call them that,” Jughead replies with a nervous laugh. Three whole weeks have passed since the merging of the schools and Cheryl can still detect the hint of unease laiden heavily on his bones when he tries to stick to a balanced middle between his two opposing friend groups. “Sit down, Sweet Pea, seriously, stop acting like a neanderthal.” 

 

The black haired boy raises an eyebrow but says no more as he plops down right next to his friend. To say it once surprised Cheryl would be an understatement, but now she simply applauds Jughead for his hold on the Southside. She’s more or less well versed in the way the otherside kids act, and bowing to someone just isn’t in their blood, for good old Jughead Jones to have made a leader out of himself even in that situation? He’s got more backbone than Cheryl had ever given him credit for.

 

“Missed me, Bombshell?” 

 

Cheryl’s hands clench underneath the table upon hearing the familiar voice that she had gotten enough of mere hours ago in history class. 

 

“You wish, Cha Cha,” she offers her fakest smile and shoots a look up to the pink haired girl who struts in, late as always, with a new addition of a camera hanging around her neck like a flashy medallion. It takes Cheryl aback slightly. Not enough to throw her off her game though, never enough to do that. 

 

Toni fails to respond, simply sliding into the apparently only open seating right next to Cheryl. 

 

“Excuse me-” 

 

“Hush,” Toni quiets, and to Cheryl’s own surprise, her mouth jerks shut. “Good, that’s more like it.” 

 

Being spoken down to is one of Cheryl’s least favorite things and she’ll be damned if she lets  _ Toni Topaz,  _ of all people, get away with it. 

 

“I am a  _ Blossom _ , you can’t just-”

 

“Oh but I  _ can,  _ especially when it I’ve got something that I think you’d want to hear,” Toni smirks, effectively shutting Cheryl up. “In fact, I think all of you would like to hear about it,” Toni then turns away from Cheryl, missing the way Cheryl’s nearly black cesspools fall to her plump lips for a second. 

 

(A mistake of course. Something Cheryl rectifies in milliseconds, forcing herself to remember the conversation they had this morning. Toni was part of her brother’s murder. Toni is  _ not  _ her friend.) 

 

“So what’s up, Toni?” Veronica implores with that signature Lodge look on her face, like she’s ready to exploit this new girl for all she has. It’s not meant to be a malicious look, but with what Cheryl knows about her family, it’s enough to make her dislike Veronica in that moment. 

 

“I was wandering around the Southside last night, ya know the usual,” Toni begins, and Cheryl’s eyes are begging her to roll again. Of course the  _ usual,  _ what more could she have expected from the girl who seemed to be in charge of the Serpents right alongside Jughead? 

 

(Did Cheryl  _ really  _ expect anything more? Where and when did she even create those expectations to begin with?)

 

“And I found this super snazzy abandoned place where they used to do drive-ins all the time, and I think if me and the guys fixed it up enough, we could possibly throw like a little movie thing there sometime this weekend, ya know? I heard from Jug about how much you guys adored the old drive in and since the Southsiders are  _ clearly  _ unwelcome here,” Toni cuts a subtle look at Cheryl which has the redhead giving into her desires and rolling her eyes into another universe. “What better way to make ourselves acquainted than let the Northside have a taste of our good old towns place drive in?” Toni offers, throwing her hands up in finality and staring at the rest of the group expectantly. 

 

Almost immediately the rest of the table erupts in little cheers and accolades for her thoughts, Betty clapping softly with an agreeable smile on her face, the left side of her mouth tilting up more than the right, Archie liplessly grinning, Veronica wrapping her arms around her boyfriend’s waist in joy and Jughead leaning forward with a glint in his eyes; Kevin and Sweet Pea shrugging wordlessly while exchanging a look of agreement with Toni’s offer. 

 

Cheryl seems to be the only one with an objection. 

 

Toni turns to her with a small smile, the fire in her eyes not dying even when she realizes that Cheryl seems to be less than pleased with this. 

 

“And  _ why,  _ pray tell, did you think that this would excite me even in the slightest? I know your standards are low, but I thought you could at least do better than that,” Cheryl frowns. 

 

“I’ve got a surprise for you,” Toni shrugs and leans forward, bringing their faces closer than Cheryl had ever dared for them to be, and she feels to knot in her stomach pull. 

 

“I never asked for that.”

 

“You never even asked for my presence as a whole, Bombshell, so what’s a little surprise then, hm?” Toni quirks an eyebrow and looks to the torn girl who glances between the expectant faces of her previous friends to the new inclusions. 

 

“ _ Fine,”  _ Cheryl gives, even though somewhere in the back of her mind, something is nagging her, telling her that this girl could very possibly mean a change in her life that is irreversible. “I’ll go with you guys, but if I’m disappointed even in the  _ slightest,  _ I will make sure that I rip every last Serpent head off in this town.” 

 

Cheryl could’ve sworn she heard Kevin gulp loudly at that, but Toni only regards her with a calm gaze.   _ That stupid fucking face sculpted by the gods, damn her,  _ Cheryl thinks with a malicious tone even in her head. She wishes Toni had at least been ugly, it would’ve been a lot easier for her to hate the girl then.

 

“I’ll bring a pike for you to mount them on if that’s the case,” Toni replies firmly. “Because then I have not done my job, and trust me, I take my jobs  _ very  _ seriously.” 

 

(Cheryl’s stomach flips and her heart seizes. 

 

She wishes she could ignore it. 

 

God she wishes, but nothing has ever gone her way when she wishes for it.) 

 

**iii.**

 

The weekend rolls around fast enough and suddenly it’s Saturday, Cheryl finds herself smiling down at her phone which flashes the display name of  **_Antoinette Topaz_ ** back at her. 

 

For the last two days, in a surprising but not entirely unexpected turn of events, Cheryl seems to have been tolerating Toni, and vice versa. They’d even gone as far as not bickering when they were forced into a partnership during an assignment, only for Cheryl to then figure out that Toni seemed to pay attention in class a lot more than she let on as she watched the Serpent girl fly through the questions on her paper and even help Cheryl with a few. 

 

(Though she’d never admit it, now or ever, Cheryl had pressed her thighs together so hard that day, watching Toni drag her pencil across her jaw in thought before jotting down the inevitably correct answers.) 

 

**_Antoinette Topaz_ **

_ So I take it I’ll be seeing you at the Southside tonight?  _

 

Cheryl groans at herself for feeling giddy with happiness at the text. Of course she’s going to be there, after all the forceful bonding she’s done over the last two days, it would hurt her ego to not go. (She swears away the thoughts that remind her that she’s going for more than just those reasons). 

 

**_Cheryl Bombshell_ **

_ I never turn down an offer to show off my newest clothing and to let everyone know that I will always be the superior fashion model in this town.  _

 

**_Antoinette Topaz_ **

_ I won’t argue with that. _

 

**_Antoinette Topaz_ **

_ Hey, I know you’ve never really been around the Southside before, other than the times you were… snooping for,,, reasons. Do you want me to come pick you up and take you there with me instead? It would save us hell of a lot of time and keep you from stumbling upon things in the South that you shouldn’t be subject to seeing.  _

 

Cheryl freezes. 

 

This is new. 

 

Toni is offering her something. Offering to give her a ride to the movie, and yet they’re not really friends, are they? Cheryl’s never been offered a ride outside of when she’s needed for one of the core four’s stupid missions to save their own or their parent’s asses, or when a sleazy drunk college boy wants to take her back to his dorm room. 

 

So what is Toni then? Where does she fall in this spectrum? 

 

_ A lover,  _ her mind whispers. 

 

Cheryl bites down harshly on her lower lip, nearly drawing blood from the pressure. She can’t allow that to happen, things just never work for her in the love department and at this point Cheryl’s stopped trying to make things work. She’s more than content in her lonely platonic life with her few friends that she trusts and zero lovers under whom she will lose her sense of self. 

 

Besides, more important than any of that, is the fact that no matter how good of a person Toni seems to be, she’s a  _ Southside Serpent.  _ The same group of people who had snatched from her the one person who had ever loved and respected her. To like Toni, to  _ accept  _ that she likes Toni, in Cheryl’s mind, is almost as bad an offense as having killed her brother herself. To fraternize with the enemy in any way more than just  _ getting by until they graduate high school,  _ it’s like treason to her pure relationship with Jason. 

 

So no matter how much Cheryl wants to, no matter how fast her heart beats when Toni prompts her with a text that reads ‘ _ cheryl?’ _ she refuses to be another one of the people in the town who turned against Jason, even in his death. Cheryl is nothing if not loyal, it’s what she has left to her name, the only thing she has outside of her money, and she will not forfeit it for some girl she met three weeks ago. 

 

(She promises herself she won’t. 

 

But promises were always made to be broken.) 

  
**iv.**  
  


An hour later, there’s the sound of engine revving outside her door, and Cheryl frantically applies the last layer of cliched red lipstick that she has become so accustomed to wearing. The one trademark that she has, something that is so significantly Cheryl that she never sees anyone else dare adorn the color in school besides her. 

 

So yes, she agreed to letting Toni ride her into town, but  _ only  _ because she doesn’t want to mess up the directions in her vintage car that lacks a GPS and find herself in the middle of some Southside drug deal. 

 

(At least this is what she tells herself. Omission of the truth is sometimes the only way Cheryl finds peace within herself.) 

 

“I see you’ve brought along the trollop of a machine you Serpents hold so dear to your heart,” Cheryl comments as she gracefully steps off her paved pathway towards the ever charming Toni Topaz who has one leg and a kickstand balancing her entire motorcycle and body. 

 

“Can’t lose all of our traditions simply because we go to school with the rich kids, now can we?” Toni grins, running an affectionate hand over the top of her bike. 

 

“I suppose not,” Cheryl shrugs, eyeing the contraption. “Just promise me I won’t die on this.”

 

“What?” Toni turns to her with an amused expression. “Is  _ the  _ Cheryl Blossom scared of a little motorcycle action?” 

 

“Oh shove it, Topaz,” Cheryl rolls her eyes, hesitantly getting closer to the vehicle that she is sure will take her life at some point. “Fearing for my life is a  _ normal  _ human thing to do.” 

 

“You’re right,” Toni agrees, shuffling forward on her bike to make room for Cheryl. “I fear for my life when I’m around you.” 

 

“ _ Hey!”  _

 

“What? I’m only speaking the truth!” Toni grins while wordlessly watching Cheryl struggle to swing herself onto the motorcycle, an effort that has the redhead girl grunting a little and Cheryl wishes she could say that she did that without breaking a sweat. “And besides, isn’t that exactly what you want us  _ southside scum  _ to do? Fear for our lives around you.” 

 

Cheryl bites down on her lip again, wincing because she had done that only a few moments ago and the pain from the last time still ebbed under her flesh. Somehow over the progression of the hours since she had woken up with the determination to ruin the Southsiders, she’s found herself ‘ _ less than resenting’  _ and maybe she would even go as far as saying  _ enjoying  _ the company of Toni Topaz. 

 

(She would include the other Southsiders, but she doesn’t know any of them well enough outside of the lunch periods to say much about them.) 

 

“Well you are what you are,” Cheryl shrugs, refusing to acknowledge what was going on in her mind. 

 

“I am what I am,” Toni intones, though it sounds hollow and it pains Cheryl in a way that her mind  _ refuses  _ to acknowledge, under any damn circumstances. 

 

The drive to the Southside is relatively calm and Cheryl finds herself easing into the hold she has around Toni’s waist (something that the girl had not let up easy with the teasing). Contrary to what she liked to say about knowing everything that there was to know about the Serpents’ side of the town, Cheryl had never actually been farther than the Whyte Wyrm and it seems pleasant enough now with the wind that is in her hair and Toni’s tantalizing smell wafts towards her, driving her into insanity. 

 

“Ever think you’d find yourself in this position?” Toni shouts over the low whistling of the wind in their ears, and yet Cheryl finds herself pressed up close enough to the other girl that she can hear her perfectly well. 

 

“What? Tangled up in Serpent business? I’ve been there before.”

 

“Oh have you now?” The smirk in Toni’s voice is evident. 

 

“I’m not  _ as  _ good as everyone likes to think I am,” Cheryl smugly replies. The divulsion feels like a crown on her head, like the stupid grey beanie is to Jughead, like the serpent jacket is to Toni. 

 

“Oh I’m  _ sure,”  _ Toni teases, revving the engine slightly as an illuminated part of town comes into view and Cheryl assumes they’re nearing their destination. “What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done, princess?”

 

“Wouldn’t you like to know, get your grubby hands all over the details of my undercover self,” Cheryl grins, looking out over Toni’s shoulder to the drive-in that comes closer and closer into view. “I’m not letting you know all of my mysteries before you even scratch the surface of a friendship with me, come now Toni,” Cheryl mock admonishes. 

 

She can’t hear Toni laugh but she feels the way the shorter girl’s stomach undulates underneath her finger tips. 

  
For a moment she considers moving her hands. 

 

This is too intimate. 

 

It’s the most freeing feeling.

 

**v.**

 

 

“This sure is something else,” Cheryl comments with a tight smile on her face as she walks into the section of the lot where several, if not more, cars and motorcycles alike are all pulled up across the lawn. 

 

To say that she had never been in area so infested by Serpents (outside of school now) would be an understatement, Cheryl had never even so much as  _ looked  _ at this side of her community. And yet here she is, scanning the area to pick out the few friends she knows have showed up from her part of town, even though Toni stands right behind her almost like a loyal bodyguard. 

 

“How are we supposed to watch a drive in movie if we don’t even have a  _ car,  _ Topaz?” Cheryl asks, turning to the girl who seems to have already been watching her with an almost pleasant smile on her face. 

 

(Cheryl ignores the butterflies that ignite in her stomach at the thought of Toni staring at her.) 

 

“ _ Because,”  _ Toni nods in the direction of the woods just beyond the setup of the drive in. “I’ve got something else in mind for us while our friends watch movies. I have a surprise for you, remember?” 

 

“Oh,” Cheryl blinks. “Is this just one elaborate plan for you to get me alone so you can stick your hand down my pants?” 

 

Toni lets out another genuine laugh at the statement and Cheryl can physically feel the heat rush to her cheeks and make them bloom a rosy red color even in the dim moonlit aura of the night. 

 

“You  _ wish,  _ Blossom,” she points once more in the direction of the woods, leaning in closer to Cheryl. “There’s something over there that I want to show  _ you,  _ just you. I think…” she takes a deep breath, “I think it could do something for you. I might be overstepping a boundary with it though, so just snap my neck or something if you get uncomfortable.” 

 

Cheryl’s brows furrow together. She hadn’t thought about punching the shorter girl in a good few days actually, and that must be some kind of world record for her because she swears she doesn’t remember the last time being around someone was as freeing as spending time with Toni. 

 

“So why did you invite basically all of the Southside and  _ my  _ school just to show me something way off in the woods that’s not even near the drive in?” 

 

“Would you have come if I had  _ just  _ asked you?”

 

Cheryl’s almost offended at the insinuation.

 

“Are you saying you think I don’t have enough backbone to accept offers for myself, Cha Cha?” 

 

“You said it not me,” Toni throws her hands up into the air, backing away from the redhead who rolls her eyes once more. “But to answer your question,  _ no  _ that’s not what I was saying. I mean think about it, the only reason you came was because I asked everyone else and they practically peer pressured you into doing it. Am I right or am I right?” 

 

A weird knot in her stomach tugs and Cheryl hates that Toni  _ is  _ right. There would’ve been very little chance in hell that she would have agreed to come traipsing along with the one person she thought she couldn’t stand  _ just that morning  _ had it not been for Jughead’s incriminating glare on her back and three other Serpent eyes waiting eagerly for her answer. 

 

Before Cheryl can answer, Sweet Pea swings around beside Toni and drags her away to the machine which is supposed to be playing a movie- something about it being broken and Sweet Pea having no idea in hell how to fix it- leaving Cheryl floundering in confusion. 

 

She watches the shorter girl mouth ‘ _ I’ll be back in five’  _  as Sweet Pea mindlessly barrels the girl towards his own problems, and farther away from Cheryl who can think about literally nothing but Toni. 

 

“So you and the  _ queen of the Buskers _ , huh?” A familiar and particularly self indulgent voice shows up next to Cheryl’s ear like a mosquito and she has to refrain from rolling her eyes. 

 

“Can I help you, Betty Crocker?” 

 

“Oh no, just pointing out how Blossom blood really is similar I suppose,” Betty cranks her head to the side, uncomfortably tight ponytail swishing with the movements. “I mean, Jughead and I are doing great, going strong, and now you with Toni? It just… it seems kinda fitting doesn’t it?” 

 

“The more you speak, the more you sound like my mother, Cousin Betty, I swear,” Cheryl grits and faces the blonde she-devil. “Funny how you seem to have more in common with her than even  _ I,  _ her daughter, do. But, I guess I dodged a bullet with that one, hm?” 

 

“I will never be anything like Penelope Blossom, Cheryl,” Betty rolls her eyes and crosses her arms over her chest. “I’m just yanking your chain anyways, ease up a little. I don’t mean to be malicious, I’m glad you and Toni are getting along better, keep her away from Juggie.” 

 

“What do you mean  _ keep her away from,”  _ Cheryl gags before saying the next word. “ _ Juggie.”  _

 

“You didn’t hear?” 

 

“I’m sorry I don’t keep myself up to date on everything going on between you and the  _ Nightmare Before Christmas  _ Jones,” Cheryl deadpans, even though inside she feels a nervous twinge. What was Toni doing with Jughead that’s got Betty’s already twisted panties nearly snapping at the seams? 

 

Cheryl’s got an inkling of course, she just hopes to god she’s wrong because the last thing she needs is to battle  _ Jughead Jones  _ for the affection of a girl. 

 

_ Woah, battle for her affections? Easy there, Cheryl,  _ she thinks to herself with an imperceptible shake of her head. She’s getting way ahead of herself over one ride on the back of Toni’s motorcycle and supposed surprise that she has half a mind of just feigning disappointment over to save herself the pain of  _ feelings.  _

 

“Well, in that case,” Betty shrugs. “I don’t see why I should destroy your hopes and dreams if you don’t already know.” 

 

“Oh  _ come on  _ you creeper, just tell me,” Cheryl implores, already tired of this cat and mouse game. 

 

“It’s-” Betty uncomfortably rubs the back of her neck. “It’s  _ nothing  _ really, but Jug and Toni had a moment, ya know together, when him and I were broken up. I’m not threatened or anything and it’s really in a worst case scenario where Jughead would ever leave our  _ completely stable relationship  _ to pursue something with Toni Topaz of all people but-” 

 

Betty rambles on for a few more minutes but Cheryl stopped listening after “ _ Jug and Toni had a moment”.  _

 

Has Cheryl been imagining everything then? The flirting, the stares, the most definite way that Toni seemed to soften around her, was Cheryl just looking too far into it because she’s being forced under the veil of niceties in order to tolerate the Southside? 

 

_ It couldn’t be, could it?  _

 

“And now I’ve worried you too, great,” Betty grumbles, pursuing her lips together in that signature ‘ _ fuck I screwed up’  _ expression that she seems to always be wearing. 

 

“I am not  _ worried,  _ you ghoul,” Cheryl pulls it together. She can’t let her guard fall around anyone, not now, not for a long time. “I just didn’t know that. But it’s good information to have, knowledge is power after all.” 

 

“You’re seriously unfazed?” Betty asks, astonished, and thankfully before Cheryl has to lie about it, Toni swings by with a smile on her face and her thumb thrown over her shoulder in the direction of the movie starting up, where a bunch of Southsiders were hooting and hollering while the Riverdale High kids simply regarded them with entranced smiles. 

 

“I got the movie to work, Betty, and Jughead was looking for you, go out there and have a nice date with your boyfriend, hm?” Toni prompts, and over her head both Betty and Cheryl can see Jughead smiling at them with a bucket of popcorn in each hand, liquorice sticks popping out the sides of each bucket. 

 

Betty offers no more words, just smiles and navigates past them to her boyfriend, leaving Cheryl and Toni alone once more.

 

“Handy dandy Toni strikes again?” Cheryl asks, a smile that she wishes could say was fake stretching across her face. 

 

“While I  _ am _ very good at what I do,” Toni smirks, “Sweet Pea’s just a moron and forgot to turn the damn thing on. It’s really a wonder to me that he’s allowed to be in the same grade as us.”

 

Cheryl barks out a laugh against her own volition with a bubbling of humor settling in the back of her mind at Toni’s words. 

 

When was the last time she had laughed at something been? 

 

Surely it had to have been  _ after  _ Jason’s death, right?

 

( _ wrong.)  _

 

“So what’s this surprise you have for me, hm?” Cheryl asks, the hum of the movie going into full swing in front of them as the audience falls relatively quieter. 

 

“Glad you asked,” Toni grins. “Come this way m’lady.”

 

The pink haired girl sticks out a hand and walks backwards, urging Cheryl to grab the extended arm and follow her into the woods. There’s a sparkle in Toni’s eyes, like she’s  _ excited  _ to spend time with Cheryl, and for the red haired girl, that’s a new experience.

 

And new experiences are scary.

 

Despite all of Cheryl’s reservations though, she lets herself reach forward and lace their fingers together, warmth spreading from tip to tip and traveling up her arm in a gleeful glow. 

 

It feels right. Like Toni’s hand was  _ made just for hers.  _

 

It’s a scary thought, incriminating, and pointing a direction that Cheryl is too scared to look at. 

 

“The movie is gonna run for a good two and a half hours so that gives us plenty of time to do whatever roaming we want to,” Toni whispers in a light joyful tone, dragging Cheryl alongside her towards the wood.

 

“You have elaborate horrors planned for me, do you?” Cheryl inquires, and yet the usually familiar sense of mistrust that bubbles in the pit of her stomach during out of the box situations is missing right now. 

 

Almost as if she  _ trusts  _ this pink haired firecracker of a girl that she’s known  _ really _ for all of three days.

 

“I only really have one thing planned,” Toni shrugs, looking up at the sky which is filled from galaxy to galaxy with stars tonight. “But it’s a beautiful night to go exploring, don’t you think?” 

 

Cheryl  _ does  _ think so. She doesn’t remember the last time someone just allowed her to be by them and appreciate the small beauties like the night sky. 

 

“We’re going to get lost in those woods, mark my words, Topaz,” Cheryl rolls her eyes, but keeps pace with the shorter girl anyways. 

 

And  _ then-  _

 

“I’ll admit it, Cherry Cola, you wouldn’t be the worst person in the world to get lost with,” Toni smirks, side eyeing her before turning back to their path as if she hadn’t just tilted Cheryl’s world on its axis. 

 

Cheryl’s mouth hangs upon, mind slowly absorbing each fragment of the sentence on word at a time. 

 

Toni,  _ the absolutely insufferable  _ Toni Topaz had just told Cheryl that she wouldn’t mind getting lost with her, in what must’ve been the world's smoothest most obvious flirting, and Cheryl didn’t hate it (at all). 

 

“You think you can handle all this alone in the woods?” Cheryl plays along, though she can’t really hear what she’s saying over the thumping of her own blood in her ears. 

 

“You think I can’t?” Toni rebuttals. “Underestimation at its finest, I swear, you give me less credit than I deserve. If it were anyone else, they would’ve had a knuckles worth of bruises across their face right now.” 

 

It’s almost hysterical, the height of the threat coming from a person of  _ Toni’s height _ , and yet if Cheryl didn’t know in her heart of hearts that Toni would never lay a finger on her, she might actually have been scared. 

 

“Sometimes I forget that you’re literally part of a biker gang,” Cheryl comments quietly as they pass the barrier of the woods together, the sound of the movie now far behind them. They truly are surrounded by oxygen and each other at this point. 

 

(Cheryl isn’t complaining.) 

 

Toni whirls around a tree, yanking Cheryl with her, an unbidden laugh of pure joy slipping past both of their lips as Cheryl barely avoids stumbling into Toni and the pink haired girl misses colliding with another tree by mere inches. 

 

“Live a little, Cheryl,” Toni smiles, eyes dragging from the redhead’s lips to orbs. 

 

“I’d say stumbling through a forest with a gang member who  _ could  _ potentially kill me is living more than just a little,” Cheryl points out as Toni slows and pulls them to halt right at the edge of the forest where it gives away to a scenery of interstate highways crossing over one another and skyscrapers in the very very distance. 

 

Cheryl’s mouth snap shuts.

 

In all her years of living, never has she witnessed a sight this pretty. She didn’t even  _ know _ there were places in Riverdale like this, sure they lived on higher ground than usual but to see what happened down below, in far away lands that seemed to just be mirages in her mind, it shakes Cheryl to her very core. 

 

“ _ Now  _ you’re living,” Toni whispers, squeezing Cheryl’s hand. 

 

“I didn’t even know there were places like this  _ around  _ Riverdale,” Cheryl breathes and moves forward, attempting to get as close to the sight of freedom that she ever dares to get. 

 

“It’s the only other place the Southside can get their money from when you Northsiders are wrapped up in your own stupid businesses,” Toni comments, close behind Cheryl, their shoulders would’ve been brushing had Cheryl’s shoulder not literally been level with Toni’s throat. “Sometimes you guys can get a bit hard headed and stringent with money too, so-” 

 

“Toni,” Cheryl interrupts gently, “I know we live in literally New York, but this is the first time I’m seeing something as beautiful as this,” Cheryl softens, almost completely ignoring the insults that Toni was throwing in the direction of her people. “So you Serpents really live the life over here, huh?” 

 

Toni laughs, it sounds almost hollow with a coloring of something more. 

 

“We don’t really live the life, Cheryl,” she points out, grabbing the taller girl’s attention once more. “We illegally sell drugs to the college kids who attend all those high end universities in the heart of New York, but it’s not like  _ that.  _ Dealing within Riverdale itself is safer, FP rarely ever lets us wander too far into Time Square because there are genuinely dangerous dealings that go on in there which we aren’t supposed to be getting ourselves tangled in. Our drugs are the more rare, harder, drugs, but supply is low and we get paid sparsely for it.” 

 

Cheryl eyes up and down the smaller girl’s frame which seems to have sunk in on itself. She would’ve imagined that Toni would’ve been proud of the Serpents’ achievements, maybe even boast about how well the whole drug dealing thing was going, but instead the bubblegum haired girl deflates, she looks  _ ashamed.  _

 

“You do what you have to,” Cheryl empathetically tries. Sympathy and other emotions that are soft have never been her forte, so she never even really tried, but to her almost pleasant surprise, she doesn’t have to fake the empathy for Toni. 

 

Who is she to judge Toni for getting by on the means of drugs when her own family hides their indiscretions under a shield of money?

 

“It’s not supposed to be like that, ya know,” Toni humorlessly chuckles. “Life’s not supposed to just be  _ doing what you have to.  _ We got the short end of the stick with that one, I guess.”

 

Cheryl wistfully smiles. 

 

“I know.” 

 

Toni blinks. 

 

“Guess we have more in common than we thought, huh Blossom?” 

 

“Don’t let it get to your head,” Cheryl teases. “You’re still insufferable.” 

 

Toni doesn’t respond but let’s out a silent chuckle behind lips pressed tightly together. 

 

“There’s the Cheryl I know,” Toni comments, moving up a few steps so they’re level once more. “Wouldn’t want you going soft on me, now would we?” 

 

“In your dreams, Topaz.” 

 

The moment is almost so soft that Cheryl refuses to break it. It’s fragile and bereft of any signs that show malicious intent, something that Cheryl just isn’t used to. In most cases of her life, someone being nice to her has meant that they wanted something from her, whether it be her own mother using her for money, Archie using her for a spot in college, or Betty using her to make sure that Jughead’s dad gets out scot free, no one has ever been in contact with Cheryl for anything other than their own selfish reasons. 

 

So the notion that a Southside Serpent whom Cheryl has harassed on multiple occasions would just bring Cheryl out to easily one of the most beautiful spots in Riverdale without wanting something in return is absurd to the redheaded girl. 

 

“Why did you bring me here, Toni?” Cheryl inquires, breaking the silence that has bloomed around them. 

 

Toni takes a few seconds to respond, eyes scanning over the city lights up ahead, and the skyscrapers looming above the cars that formed blood vessels to the city’s veins with their sheer infrastructural power. 

 

“I knew Jason,” is what she settles with finally. 

 

_ That  _ takes Cheryl aback. 

 

She had never once thought that Toni had in anyway been directly involved in her brother’s murder, the girl’s name had just never come up in a conversation before and it wasn’t until Jughead fully moved to other side for schooling purposes that Cheryl was even aware of any  _ Antoinette Topaz.  _

 

To think that maybe Toni was one of the last people that her beloved brother had conversed with before his untimely death knocks Cheryl onto her back and blows the oxygen out of her lungs. 

 

Is this little “surprise” repentance for some guilt Toni felt when Cheryl accused the girl of murdering Jason?

 

“So you  _ were  _ involved in JJ’s murder,” Cheryl hisses meanly, not even letting Toni elaborate on her sentence. 

 

“What?” Toni nearly wheezes, losing all of her air on that one word. “Cheryl, what the fuck,  _ no _ I was not involved in Jason’s murder, in fact I was probably one of the only Southsiders who stayed about as far away from that ordeal as I possibly could. I even advised him against everything that he seemed to be getting into with the guys at the Wyrm and Jug’s dad, but… as we all know, he didn’t listen to me.” 

 

Cheryl lets out a sigh of relief that she didn’t know she had been holding in the first place. 

 

“Good god, Cha Cha, you really almost made me consider turning around and calling Sheriff Keller for a second there,” Cheryl shakes her head, looking down at the ground while her heart tried to control it’s frantic beating. 

 

“ _ Almost?”  _ Toni repeats back. “You thought for a solid second that I killed your brother and you only had partial surety in calling the cops on me?” The leather jacket donning Serpent grins her most winning smile yet. “You must really like me, Blossom.” 

 

“What are you being an airhead for?” Cheryl grumbles, even though she has to shove down the summersaults her stomach is performing right now. “I obviously was giving you a little bit of the benefit of the doubt before I just turned on my heel and got you arrested. Lord knows too many innocent people have already become victim to my family’s vicious dictatorship over everything.” 

 

Toni doesn’t let up with her smug little grin and lifts her chin up into the air triumphantly. 

 

“I think my version sounds better,  _ more romantic.”  _

 

_ Oh fuck you, Toni Topaz,  _ Cheryl rolls her eyes, deciding not to respond back to the shorter girl who had more cockiness in her than her body could probably handle. 

 

“I still don’t know why you brought me here,” Cheryl points out. 

 

“I brought you here because ya know how you went on that little rant like two days ago about my guys having a hand in Jason’s murder and all that?” Toni asks, trying to sound as sincere as she could. 

 

“Yeah…” 

 

“Well I realized, that no matter how much of a tough front you put up in front of other people, you still grieve silently and that  _ shows  _ every time you get sensitive and start shouting at people about his death,” Toni points out, and Cheryl gazes down at the girl with affectionate eyes. No one had ever taken the time to think that much and deeply about her before. It’s a new feeling, and Cheryl doesn’t hate it. Not at all. “So I thought I would give you a little bit of closure. This piece of land, the one we’re standing on right now, is the last spot I spoke to your brother in. He told me that this was one of his favorite places to come to for precisely the same reason that you do. He planned to run away with Polly into a city like area, something like this, where if we looked down from here we would be able to see them living a happy life.” 

 

Cheryl bites down on her lip and only then does she realize how hard the flesh trapped between her teeth is trembling. 

 

“So I guess, what I was trying to do,” Toni begins to conclude. “Is give you somewhere to go other than Sweetwater River if you ever want to feel close to him again. You can look over this hillside and for a moment you can pretend like he’s still here and he just escaped to the lights down there. Like he’s living his best life in the heart of the city, buzzing with life like like every other human down there. It’s a hell of a lot better than going to the place you remember as the  _ last  _ place you saw him.” 

 

Silence greets both of their ears, whistling low notes as the wind picks up a little, when Toni stops speaking, and it’s only then that Cheryl can focus on anything else and she feels the hot tears running down her face. 

 

No one has ever been this nice to her, not the Sheriff when he found Jason’s dead body and brought her family in trying to be as respectful as he could be, not any of the core four when they saved her from nearly killing herself. But here was a Serpent who Cheryl had formerly believed to be the devil incarnate strutting around on her soil, standing in an area that she had now basically declared as a sanctuary that no one else had ever offered Cheryl. 

 

“Toni…” Cheryl breathes. 

 

Her gaze runs over each of the smaller girl’s features, her plump lips which are turned down in a concerned frown, soft brown eyes which take in every detail of Cheryl’s tear stained face, and cherry red blush on her cheeks which contrast in a heavenly manner against her darker skin tone. 

 

“It’s alright, you don’t need to say anything, I just wanted you to know that I’m  _ sorry  _ about Jason, Cheryl. He had every right to live, and my guys were wrong in trying to cover up his murder. I suppose this was the least I could do to help you out,” Toni shrugs, a small smile playing on her lips as she watches Cheryl take a few steps closer. 

 

“But you didn’t  _ have  _ to do that,” Cheryl implores. 

 

Toni reaches up and drags a lone thumb across the apple of Cheryl’s cheek and the redhead girl can’t help but let her eyes flutter shut at the affection. The simple gesture is warm and inviting, she chases after it like flowing water going down a hill. 

 

“There’s just something about you, Cheryl Blossom,” Toni finally whispers, and Cheryl opens her eyes to find them much  _ much  _ closer than they had been a few seconds ago. “You yelled at me that day and all I could think about for the rest of the night was how much I never wanted to see that kind of frown on your beautiful face ever again.” 

 

Cheryl feels her heart flutter in a way that could make all the birds in the world worship her. 

 

“You think I’m beautiful?” She wills her voice not to crack at the end of the sentence. 

 

“Yeah,” Toni nods. “I do.” 

 

And then everything is happening at once, both of Toni’s hands are cupping Cheryl’s face, one on either cheek, and their lips are being brought together in the most gentle of affectionate gestures. Cheryl’s hand doesn’t waste time finding homage on Toni’s hip, pulling the smaller girl in closer and melding their bodies together. 

 

Toni flicks her tongue out and caresses Cheryl’s upper lip with it, making the taller girl softly moan into her mouth before submitting under the pressure of the strong pink muscle that’s invaded her mouth. There’s nothing rushed about the moment, Toni taking her sweet time coercing Cheryl out of her shell with each swipe of her tongue, and Cheryl has to keep herself from whimpering into the sinfully skilled girl’s mouth every time. 

 

When they do finally pull away, there’s a smirk playing on Toni’s lips and their foreheads lean against each other in an intimate nature. 

 

It takes a moment for Cheryl to gather her bearings once more. There’s still so much she wants to ask Toni, so much that she doesn’t know about the girl who has just managed to give her the world and more. 

 

Enraptured enough by the beauty of the night she was, that Cheryl almost forgot the thing Betty had talked to her about before Toni grabbed her wrist and pulled her into a different universe. 

 

“So you and Donnie Darko aren’t like… secret lovers trying to stay away from Cousin Betty’s prying gaze?” Cheryl blurts out of nowhere, catching Toni by surprise as the girl leans back a little and rests her hands around the redhead’s neck. 

 

“Donnie Darko… you mean Jughead?” Toni asks with a small smile on her face, eyebrows raised. 

 

Cheryl rolls her eyes but nods anyways. He wasn’t important enough to call by name. 

 

“No… we aren’t a thing, was that what you and Betty were talking about when I was helping Sweet Pea?” Toni cocks her head to the side and Cheryl watches her eyes sparkle from under all their dark brown depth like a hidden diamond. 

 

Cheryl can’t see herself but with the heat that rises to her face almost immediately, she imagines that she’s flushed a deep red which could contend the color of her nails. 

 

(Never her lipstick. Nothing could ever contend her lipstick.) 

 

“Don’t get cocky on me now, Topaz,” Cheryl reminds, her tone much softer than she would’ve ever realized it could be with a person that was anyone outside of Jason. “But  _ yes,  _ that’s what we were talking about. She was worried that you would steal him away from her or something stupid like that,” Cheryl finishes with a mumble. 

 

Toni laughs heartily and runs her fingers through the slightly tangled underbrush of hair that resides underneath the otherwise well polished layers of red hair. 

 

“No need to get defensive, Cheryl,” Toni shrugs. “Besides, I never realized what a cute look jealousy is on you.” 

 

Cheryl stumbles at this. 

 

Her hands twitch and it’s only then when she realizes that those hands are resting idly on Toni’s waist, her thumbs pressing into the skin there more forcefully than she had intended for them to be, but the shorter girl doesn’t seem to mind. 

 

“I’m not  _ jealous-”  _

 

“Oh save it, Bombshell,” Toni grins and tugs the girl closer by her neck once more. “Admit it, you’re absolutely head over heels for me now that I showed you what an absolute sweetheart I can be. No need to be shy about it, I would be in love with me too.” 

 

“And people call  _ me  _ the narcissist,” Cheryl laughs, leaning in eagerly, acutely aware of where this is going. 

 

“Because you are, cutie,” Toni shrugs, and reaches up on her tiptoes, their lips brushing together in earnest. “But that just makes us a perfect match, I guess.” 

 

Cheryl blushes at the words, she’s never been called cute, and she doesn’t think anyone had even thought to use those words to describe her. She had worked hard over the years, anyways, to keep people from associating those kinds of words with her, and yet here Toni-fucking-Topaz was, smiling at her in that painfully beautiful way and making Cheryl blush at things that she would’ve clocked anyone else for calling her.  

 

“This was definitely not how I thought tonight was going to go,” Cheryl admits. 

 

“Neither did I,” Toni agrees and then places another gentle kiss on her lips. “But I think I’m more than happy that I was wrong.”

  
**vi.**

 

It’s a week later and Cheryl finds herself waking up in the middle of the night, covered in a cold sweat, her heart pounding not only in her chest but in her ears and in her head. Everything was pulsing with a tempo that matched the rhythm of how Cheryl danced in her dream, shaking her hips from side to side for the football team as they ran across the field.

 

Ran across the field and in front of the girls, until Cheryl paused and realized that her brother, her  _ Jason,  _ was nowhere to be seen. Gone from her dreams like he was from the world, as Cheryl had fallen to her knees in the dream and cried, cried until her throat was raw and there was no sound leaving her voice. 

 

“Cheryl?” 

 

The voice calls comfortingly to her, and Cheryl tenses; until she takes in her surroundings and notices the lack of red, the soft glow of the moon coming in through the slitted blinds of the trailer that she’s currently sleeping in. 

 

The trailer; the sad house which Toni lives in, the one place that Cheryl had thought to come to after an argument with her mother that far outweighed any of the other ones that she’d ever had with the cruel Blossom family members. 

 

Cheryl remembers watching the girl, whom she now adored, bow her head in shame while opening the door to her trailer, ushering Cheryl in with a quiet whisper of assurance. 

 

_ \-  _

 

_ “It’s nothing compared to Thornhill or Thistlehouse, but it’s home,” Toni shrugs, closing the door behind Cheryl ever so lightly as to not scare away the girl who looked a lot like a deer caught in headlights.  _

 

_ Cheryl scans over the surrounding areas with a stoic expression, nothing showing under her mask; that is, until Toni watches in abject horror as the beautiful and strong girl that she has become so acquainted with, fall apart right in front of her eyes. Her body shook with the power that could break a Richter Scale, and Toni rushes her to her side almost immediately.  _

 

_ The shorter girl’s arms wrap around the fallen angel as she gently moves them over the broken couch and cradles Cheryl into her arms.  _

 

_ “Hey, shh, you’re okay, you’re safe,” Toni reminds the girl, feeling each sob wrack through her own body as if she herself had been crying. It pains her to see this, she had only ever known Cheryl to be the one to make other people cry like a baby, so what could’ve possibly broken her warrior to pieces like this?  _

 

_ This goes on for an amount of time that could’ve been hours or minutes, but all Toni is worried about is holding the girl in her arms and making sure that she can hold it together long enough for Cheryl to find herself once more.  _

 

_ When the crying subsides, Cheryl straightens herself out and wipes the tears from her face, sniffling and avoiding her girlfriend’s eyes in abject horror.  _

 

_ “I’m sorry, Toni. I didn’t mean to be such a mess, it’s just-” she hiccups from the force of the tears and wipes hastily under her eyes. “It’s just been a horrible night and I didn’t know where else to go. I can totally leave if you don’t want me here, god, I didn’t even  _ ask  _ if you wanted me-”  _

 

_ Toni grabs the rambling girl gently, one hand on either cheek, and forces her midnight eyes to stare into hazel ones.  _

 

_ “I have no objections with you being in my trailer, Cheryl, I was more worried about whether or not this would hold up against the big mansions that you’re so used to living in,” Toni shrugs, rubbing away each new tear that falls from her girl’s eyes.  _

 

_ Cheryl lets out a watery laugh.  _

 

_ “A hole in the ground would be better than my own house right now, if I’m being honest,” Toni watches in earnest as Cheryl’s eyes then scan one of the only places Toni had ever called home. “And although it’s quaint, this is cute in it’s own way. There’s something more charming about it than you’ll ever know, TT.”  _

 

_ At this, Toni lets out a relieved sigh and leans back so Cheryl can cuddle into her chest.  _

 

_ “I’m glad you think that because I sure don’t,” the pink haired girl comments and she feels one of those tell tale chuckles vibrate through Cheryl’s body. “I think that might be a rich white girl thing.” _

 

_ “Okay, okay, I get it, I’m privileged,” Cheryl shakes her head and rests her chin on Toni’s chest, gazing gently up at the girl who has quickly harnessed her affection; something many in the past have failed to do. (Not like they really tried anyways). “But I think you add the charm more than anything else.”  _

 

_ Toni can’t help the bashful grin that spreads across her face at that. It’s heartwarming, and to have been on the receiving end of Cheryl’s wrath once, Toni knows just how much to appreciate this new side of the self proclaimed Ice Queen.  _

 

_ “How flattering, Blossom, I see you’ve stepped up your flirting game.” _

 

_ “Well I have some challenging competition to hold my own against, don’t I?”  _

 

_ - _

 

“Hey, Cher, what’s going on?” Toni asks as comfortingly as she can muster up in a sleepy state. 

 

Cheryl sniffles and is quick to wipe the tears from under her eyes. She wishes she could know how long this would go on, the suffering and the mourning for her brother, the woeful nights where she spends half of the hours gazing up at a ceiling while going over every detail of her dream in slow motion. 

 

“Nothing, Toni, go back to sleep,” she tries, turning to her girlfriend who’s now leaned up onto one elbow and peering at the mop of red hair with slitted eyes that are still blurry with sleep. 

 

“It doesn’t-” a yawn interrupts her sentence momentarily. “Sorry, it doesn’t seem like nothing.” 

 

“I promise you, I know how to handle these,” Cheryl assures, moving forward to press a chaste kiss to Toni’s lips but only finding the skin of her cheek when the shorter girl turns her face away. “What?” 

 

“Wait, handle  _ what?  _ Nightmares?” Toni prods, more intrigued now, and concerned. “That’s not okay, babe. I know you’ve had a rough year, and it’s probably in your best interest if you go see a therapist or something, especially if you’re getting nightmares.’ 

 

Cheryl fights the urge to reflexively roll her eyes, she understands that this is Toni, her girlfriend, and she’s just trying to do what’s best for Cheryl. 

 

“I will not go see a shrink, for god’s sake, Antoinette, don’t you know who I am?” 

 

“Yeah I do, which is precisely why I’m telling you to do this.” 

 

Cheryl blinks. 

 

“No, I’m not going to see a therapist, I’m not crazy.”

 

“It doesn’t have to mean that you’re crazy, Cheryl, it just means that you need a little extra help, like we all do sometimes,” Toni presses, frowning now.

 

“You don’t get it Toni,” Cheryl shakes her head, leaning forward into her own hands now and rubbing up and down her temples. “I’ve been to  _ therapy  _ before, my mom once sent me to a conversion camp for a whole week before she realized that things were getting too suspicious with hounds searching for flaws in our family so they could steal our maple industry away from us.” 

 

The admission is quiet, so quiet that Toni has to strain to hear it, but she catches drift of the girl’s words anyways and it makes her freeze. She had no idea of all of this, sure she was are that Penelope Blossom had quite the reputation of being absolutely bonkers, but homophobic? What more could’ve Toni expected. 

 

“Baby…” Toni whispers softly, reaching over and pulling Cheryl into her arms, feeling the girl not miss a beat as she pushes them backwards up against the headboard before cuddling into the smaller one’s chest. “This won’t be like that, I promise you. And if you want, I’ll be there, protecting you every step of the way. Whatever did or didn’t happen to you in that camp won’t ever be repeated again, not if I can help it.” 

 

Cheryl’s arms squeeze tighter around Toni’s waist and she feels her resistance giving. Maybe Toni’s right, this is what she needs to move forward in life, and it wasn’t like a regular monitored therapy session was like prison, was like a conversion camp. If Cheryl ever felt uncomfortable or like it wasn’t helping, she could walk out on her own. 

 

“You promise? You’ll be there the whole time?”

 

Toni feels her heart clench inside her chest. Cheryl is so  _ so  _ small. 

 

“I promise, Cheryl.” 

 

And so Cheryl falls back asleep, lulled into the state by the soft breathing of her girlfriend in her arms, and the gentle strokes up and down her back that feel like as Toni makes it her job to make sure that Cheryl sleeps peacefully for the rest of the night. 

 

She can only imagine how bad Sweet Pea would tease her about this if he could see them. 

 

She’s got to tell Jughead, too. He deserves to know, he was the one who had told her to go easy with Cheryl anyways, reminding her that she had been through things that many other teenagers couldn’t even imagine having to go through. 

 

Toni thanks herself silently for having listened to the boy, for not having been so quick to judge Cheryl, because she wouldn’t trade the girl in her arms for the world. (Or a better trailer). 

 

**vii.**

 

“Do we have to do this?”

 

“Cheryl. Come on, you agreed to this yourself! I didn’t even need to coerce you, you can’t back out of this now.” 

 

“Uh- I remember there being a  _ lot  _ of coercing happening, especially with your tongue.” 

 

“ _ Cheryl!”  _

 

Toni shoves the taller girl in good humor with the heel of her palm, catching her girlfriend on the shoulder and sending her stumbling back a little. 

 

“I just stepped in mud, oh my god,  _ oh my god,  _ you are dead meat Topaz,” Cheryl growls, pulling her foot out of the dirty viscous liquid with a hollow sucking noise and Toni can’t hold back the laugh that dislodges itself from her throat. 

 

“It’s a camping trip, Cher, what did you expect? Mani pedis and cucumber face masks?” Toni grins, cocking her head to the side as she sets down their tent and bags on the floor. “Live a little, huh? I don’t see Veronica whining about all the mud, and she lives almost as lavishly as you do.” 

  
Cheryl’s face drops into a scowl as she crosses her arms over her chest, effectively pushing her breasts higher up (not that Toni notices, of course) and looks at her girlfriend with a pained expression of pure anger. 

 

“Well maybe you should’ve dated  _ Veronica  _ instead, huh?” 

 

Toni immediately feels bad at the way Cheryl’s tone gets somber, all inclinations of teasing gone away, as she moves to shoulder check past Toni. 

 

“Hey,  _ hey,  _ I was kidding baby, I could never handle that girl, you’re all I ever wanted,” Toni assures, reaching out hastily and grabbing Cheryl’s hand. “Besides, I know I’ve been teasing you about it, but I find the fact that you’re so incompetent in the wild very cute.” 

 

Cheryl huffs and rolls her eyes, but seems considerably less pissed off, moving in closer to wrap her arms around Toni’s neck. 

 

“I don’t appreciate you calling me incompetent, for the record, but you’re right. I’m not ashamed about the fact that I’ve never had to deal with pesky mosquitoes or the incredibly uncomfortable shouting of morons on a camping trip,” Cheryl rolls her eyes and comments as Jughead’s considerably girly scream sounds from a bit away, and then Archie’s boisterous laugh which resonates through the forest.

 

“It’s not going to be that bad, babe, seriously, you’ve known these guys all your life, they’re your friends!”

 

“That’s a bit of a stretch,” Cheryl winces. “They’re opportunity based acquaintances I’ve made. I never thought I’d be swatting flies in a jungle for fun with them.” 

 

“Well I’m here too,” Toni grins mischievously and catches Cheryl’s lips in a sweet kiss. 

 

“Mm,” Cheryl hums when they pull away, enjoying herself just a little bit too much. “If I get to do that all weekend and give Veronica and Archie a taste of their own medicine, I’m starting to think that this wasn’t such a bad idea after all.” 

 

Toni lets out a bark of laughter, unlinking her hands from around Cheryl’s neck as the six other people they had come on the trip with rounded the corner,  _ finally.  _

 

“Woah, did we interrupt something, love birds?” Jughead asks with a cheeky smile, raising one of his eyebrows. 

 

“Something we might want to see if you continue?” Sweet Pea adds, lumbering behind the rest of the group with a self satisfied smirk on his face. 

 

“Oh shut it, you guys,” Betty groans, rolling her eyes, shoving her boyfriend on the shoulder before sending a reassuring smile to Toni and Cheryl, who seemed to be in their own dilemma all together as they eyed the people they had to spend their weekend with. “No pressure, Cheryl  _ or  _ Toni, we can set up the tents and get away from the guys, how does that sound?” Betty shoots Veronica a look and the Pembrooke bound girl nods affirmatively. 

 

“I wish I could say I had something better do,” Cheryl grumbles under her breath and Toni swats her on the arm. 

 

“I think that would be great, Betty, I’m tired of Sweets and the rest of the guys.” 

 

Cheryl starts muttering expletives to herself as Toni drags the girl away to put their tent together, and yet, neither of them have ever experienced the bubble of beautiful feelings that sits in the middle of their chest ever before. Even in the middle of all this chaos. 

 

**viii.**

 

“So you and Cheryl, huh?” Jughead asks, throwing the logs into the fire, letting it burn brighter before clapping his hands together to dust them off. 

 

“Like you didn’t already know,” Toni grins, looking up at the boy who’s gazing down at her with his lopsided boyish grin that was so rare in recent times during the stressful lives they lived as Serpents. 

 

“Yeah I’m glad you guys are a thing now, the constant nagging about wondering when Cheryl would finally soften up to you was starting to get old,” Jughead jokes, sitting on a log in front of the fire next to Toni, both of them watching their respective girlfriends stripping down to take a dip in the river. 

 

(Albeit, Toni notices, that Cheryl is hesitant, but she’s happy that the girl is at least giving it a shot, not just pouting her way through the trip.) 

 

“Well I had to snatch her up, it’s kind of a one time opportunity that I couldn’t chance missing,” Toni whispers like a lovestruck fool, and Jughead notices but he refuses to comment on it. If he was teased every time he looked at Betty like that, it would become borderline bullying. 

 

“She’s had a hard life, Toni-”

 

“I know, she practically lives with me now, I’m well aware.”

 

Jughead startles at that. 

 

“Lives with you? Seriously?  _ The  _ Cheryl Blossom lives with you in your tiny trailer built for basically one?”

 

Toni scoffs. “Gee, Jug, thanks for not making me feel bad about it. Really empowered me with that one.” 

 

“No,  _ no-”  _ Jughead shakes his head with a laugh and attempts to wave away the slight negativity that had gathered in the air at his comment. “I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, she must really love you if she’s willing to live in that tiny space with you when she probably has enough money to rent out a hotel for living in for the rest of high school.” 

 

Toni chokes. 

 

“ _ Love?  _ I hardly think-”

 

“Oh shove it, Toni, you and I both know that girl has been deprived of affection for far too long for her not to be in love with you already,” Jughead chuckles, gently nudging Toni’s shoulder with his own. 

 

Toni looks forward again, taking her eyes off of the raven haired boy. She looks directly at her girl. 

 

And maybe, just maybe, she actually doesn’t panic at the thought of Cheryl being in love with her. Perhaps it’s because that would’ve been Toni’s pipe dream a few months ago, or maybe it’s because Toni just might be in love with Cheryl too. 

  
  


A few weeks later, Cheryl finally blurts it out, being unable to hold it within herself any longer. 

 

It doesn’t catch Toni by surprise.

 

She says it back almost immediately, but what  _ does  _ surprise her is the reaction that she gets from Cheryl when she reciprocates the words. 

 

“I- you do?” Cheryl asks with a shocked expression on her face, and Toni’s eyebrows furrow together. 

 

“Of course I do, Cher, I love you  _ so  _ much it kinda drives me crazy sometimes,” Toni admits with an embarrassed laugh.

 

“It’s just not the norm for me, I guess,” Cheryl admits, looking down and fumbling with her hands, it breaks Toni’s heart if she’s being honest. So she reaches over and envelopes her girlfriend’s hands in her own, forcing the girl to stop and interlace their fingers instead. “I’m used to people not loving me, I mean, you’d expect someone as close as your own parents to love you, and yet mine didn’t. In fact, they were about as far from loving me as someone could get.” 

 

“Jason loved you,” Toni reminds, leaning forward and searching for Cheryl’s eyes with her own. “All of those friends who you refuse to acknowledge as friends love you, to an extent. They were slacking before, I agree, and they were being assholes, but they’re trying now Cheryl, and I know for a fact that they love you,” Cheryl sniffles and shuffles closer to Toni. “And  _ I  _ love you.” 

 

“I love you too,” Cheryl says back, placing her warm palm against Toni’s cheek. 

 

They meet in the middle for a soft kiss, lips moving pliantly together, and Cheryl sighs sweetly into Toni’s mouth. It lasts for a while, tongues moving back and forth, swapping silent words that both of them are too scared to speak into existence. 

 

When they pull apart, it seems established that Cheryl believes Toni because she pulls the girl into her and rests her chin atop Toni’s head. 

 

“No one’s ever been as good to me as you have, especially without wanting something in return,” Cheryl admits quietly, and Toni listens. “And before you came around I used to believe that maybe that’s just the way things are supposed to be. The unloved Blossom child I was born, the unloved Blossom child I would remain for the rest of my days. So I was always mean to people, I gave to them what they gave to me because I literally had nothing to lose. But I made the mistake… I- I once loved someone you know,” Cheryl finally divulges, and Toni’s ears perk up. “I loved a girl named Heather, and she used to be my everything for a while. Like she really  _ really  _ got me, she would’ve done anything for me because we were best friends, and it just so happened to be that she had feelings for me like I did for her.” 

 

“What happened?” Toni asks, speaking for the first time since Cheryl had begun talking. 

 

“My mother find out, she carved Heather out of my life in every way possible, she deleted her number from my phone, she made me quit every single team that I was on that Heather was in too, and when she realized that that wasn’t enough because we would still be going to the same school…” Cheryl gulps hard, forcing down obvious feelings that she had once buried, never to be uncovered again. “She sent them away, she threatened Heather’s entire family and sent them away, paying them a good sum of money to keep their mouths shut and enough to help them start their lives over elsewhere. I never forgave her for that, I think… that’s what finally drew the line in the sand for me. I had always had a certain amount of respect for her up until that point, but when she shamed me for loving someone, for loving a  _ girl,  _ I could find no reason to give her any part of me.”

 

The conclusion of the story leaves Toni rattling in her bones a little, as she gently wipes away the tears from Cheryl’s eyes and the girl chases after the warmth of her palm like a dog after a mailman. It makes Toni’s heart clench. 

 

“I don’t really think I know what the correct response to that is,” Toni chuckles lightly and pats herself on the back when Cheryl echoes it. 

 

“That’s okay, I just wanted you to know… I wanted you to realize what a big impact you’ve had on my life because I used to be the kind of girl who burned down mansions in spite and threw people onto train tracks without a second thought, and you changed that. I loved Heather, but I love you more than I ever could think possible to love a person, because Heather saved me when I needed saving, but you saved me when I thought I was past the point of return.” 

 

It takes a moment for toni to realize that she, too, is crying. 

 

“I love you now more than I did two seconds ago, and less than I will in two seconds, Cheryl,” Toni whispers, her eyes massive and filled to the brim with affection. “You burned your house down, you literally stalked Josie for a while, I also heard that you tried to choke your mother in the hospital while she was suffering from massive burns, and despite all that, I find it in me to be pleased with every aspect of your being. I think… you might be it for me, if I’m being honest. I’m not one to be big on falling in love or doing the whole feelings thing, especially since I have a lot of experience losing people I love, but… you changed  _ that  _ for  _ me.  _ And that’s what makes you special to me, Cheryl Blossom, we’re both our own kinds of fucked up but we need each other.” 

 

And since they’ve already spoken paragraphs to each other, and exhausted a pocket sized dictionary worth of words, Cheryl just leans over and straddles Toni as they sit in the front seat of her red convertible by the side of Sweetwater River for their two month anniversary; and they kiss. 

 

They kiss and they kiss until their mouths are numb and they kiss some more, because they’re completely and totally in love, and nothing will ever change that. 

**Author's Note:**

> I know this wasn't much of a haters-to-lovers considering I wanted Cheryl and Toni to start cuddling the minute I started writing, but I tried my best since we deserved more screen time in which they developed the intricacies of their relationship considering Cheryl is actually a multidimensional human with many emotions that Toni probably has to deal with, just like any other hetero couple on the show.


End file.
